Web Hosting Requirements

In scouting for a web hosting company, always ensure the disk space and amount of traffic needed.

Amount of Disk Space

The requirement of a small or medium web site is between 10 and 100MB of disk space.

When looking at the size of HTML pages, you will notice that the average size is very small - smaller than 1K. But looking at the size of the pictures used within the pages, you will often find them several times bigger than the page itself.

5 and 50K of space on the server is the expected consumption of each HTML page which is dependent on the use of images or other elements that may consume disk space.

More disk space is needed for web sites that plan to utilize lots of images or graphic elements (not to mention sound files or movies).

Before scouting for your web host, make sure that you have knowledge of your requirements.

Monthly Traffic

Monthly transfer of data for a small or medium web site will take up between 1 and 5GB.

On the other hand, monthly traffic in larger commercial sites consumes more than 100GB.

Before the contract with the host provider is signed, be sure that the following is checked:

 What are the limitations on monthly transfer?

 Will your site be closed if you go beyond the volume?

 Will you be the billing be higher if the volume is exceeded?

 Will it cover future requirements?

 Is upgrading easy?

Connection Speed

Your web hosting provider should offer a relatively faster connection for your visitors who often connect through a modem.

During the early days of the Internet, connecting using a T1 was considered a fast connection. However, modern speeds are much faster.

One byte is 8 bits long, and that is usual amount of bits used to transfer a character (a letter or a digit). 14,000 to 56,000 bits per second (bps) is the transfer speed for low speed communication modems. The range is within 2000 and 7000 characters per second, nearly 1 to 5 pages of written text.

Before making any deal with hosting providers, research some other web sites on their servers, to have a good background about the speed of their network. Likewise, compare the other sites with your site, to check if you have the same requirements. Getting in touch with other customers is another alternative.

Disk space and the amount of monthly traffic is not the only requirement in web hosting. This will depend on the web site you are planning to put up.

UNIX versus Windows Hosting

When browsing through the offerings of various web hosting companies you are sure to notice that some offer UNIX hosting and others offer Windows. Some hosts even offer a choice of the two operating systems. What are the differences and which one is better?

First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.

In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable – slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.

The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.

As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.

The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.

Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.

UNIX versus Windows Hosting

When browsing through the offerings of various web hosting companies you are sure to notice that some offer UNIX hosting and others offer Windows. Some hosts even offer a choice of the two operating systems. What are the differences and which one is better?

First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.

In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable – slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.

The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.

As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.

The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.

Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.

Web Hosting Transfer Domain - Transferring Domain to Another Provider Or Account

Recently, I had to transfer a client's domain to another web hosting account. Actually, the domain was transfered to the same web hosting provider but it was a different account. So the steps taken here could be used to transfer the domain settings to a different web hosting provider as well as another account. Remember there will be some down time so I would advise these steps be implemented when it's late or when you expect there to be low activity on your web site and the email accounts. The downtime will occur depending on whether you are transferring the domain to a new web hosting provider or whether you are transferring the domain to another web hosting account. The latter refers to the same web hosting provider yet a new account.

If you are transferring to a new web hosting provider then you would need to change the DNS settings. There is a way to receive and send email in the midst of the transfer if you set up additional MX servers but let's leave that for another day of discussion. For now, however, we're assuming that you've already changed your DNS settings or your are only simply transferring to another hosting account with the same provider. All the step-by-step images are specifically for the control panel CPanel. If you are using Plesk or some other control panel Webmin then please contact your web hosting provider's tech support team. They should be able to guide you.

The process to transfer your domain to another web account yet from within the same web hosting provider is called 'unassigning the domain'. There are some previous steps you should take to back up your email first before you delve into unassigning your domain.

Set Up Your New Account with the Hosting Provider

First set up your web hosting account with the your provider. It will make things easier later. Some providers will not allow you to initially set up an account when the domain is already associated with another provider or account. I underline the world 'initially' as this applies only to a brand new account. This is the case for Bluehost anyways. The workaround for this is to simply get a new domain. Some hosting providers will offer a free domain with new accounts so you can use this opportunity to register a new domain and then use that domain to set up the account. The reason for this is that when you first set up an account they will use the domain name as the account name. Every other domain is considered an 'add-on domain'.

Setting up the new account will allow you later simply transfer the files over from one account to another using a good ftp program. I personally use Ipswitch but I believe CuteFTP has that capability as well as many others.

Back Up Email: Before Transferring the Domain

IMPORTANT: First, back up all your email accounts' folder and files. My current web host is Bluehost and it uses a Linux OS; thus, for my particular account, the email folders are located /home1/[account's name]/mail. For some reason, Bluehost has a number '1' immediately after 'home'. It may simply be/home/[your account's name]/mail for your account. If you've set up your email accounts as IMAP then the download process could take awhile. Click on the image for a larger view.

A technician told me to the do the following though I did not test it and I suggest an alternative way to backing up your email (read below). Here is what he suggested: if you have your email set up on your client program using IMAP protocol then change your email accounts to POP protocol. This action will download all your emails to your client program on to your local computer. Essentially, you are downloading your emails off the server. This could take awhile so just be patient. IMPORTANT: please note this step should be completed for every email account. Once you've unassigned your domain and re-established your email accounts in your web hosting account then you may change the settings back to use IMAP. Now, the only problem I had with his suggestion is that, at least within Mozilla Thunderbird, one can't readily change from IMAP to POP. Also, I'm not convinced (though, again, I haven't test his procedures) that the client program will 're-upload' all the emails you just downloaded from the servers (since you previously set your email account to use POP).

So here is my suggestion: simply back up all the folders, sub-folders and files from within the mail folder as suggested earlier in the first section. It's the same as backing up your email. Once you've re-created your email accounts in your new web hosting account then simply re-upload the sub-folders and files to the appropriate folder. That's it. It's simpler. Remember, if the file sizes are large then re-synching your email accounts with IMAP may take awhile. Just be patient.

Back Up Database

Don't forget to back up our database tables for this account just in case. I do not believe unassigning will delete those tables and database but it's always a good idea to back them up.

Unassigning the Domain to Transfer

Click on the Domain Manager once you login to your CPanel control panel.

Select your domain from the domain list. It's in your lower left corner.

Then click the unassign link.

Transferring or Uploading the Backed Up Email

Re-upload your backed up email to the servers.

If you've changed to another web hosting provider then you will need to update your incoming and outgoing mail server settings in your email client's program. In my case, this would be Mozilla Thunderbird. If they are the same web hosting provider then most likely the incoming and outgoing mail servers will be the same so no need to change anything here.

Configuring DNS

When you first purchase a domain name, it will be registered on the DNS of the registrar. Until you arrange for a web host, the registrar company will usually redirect requests for your domain name to an error page or an ‘Under Construction’ page. Note that there is no time limit between buying a domain name and finding a host. Some people purchase domain names without ever intending to build a website on them. Most people, though, buy a domain name with the intention of using it. To do that, you need to open an account with a web host and prepare to transfer your site to their server. Part of the process of preparing your site for publication on the World Wide Web is to alert your domain name registrar of the DNS of your new server.

A DNS configuration looks something like this:

Primary Name Server: NSA.NEWDAYDNS.COM (204.50.14.2)
Secondary Name Server: NSB.NEWDAYDNS.COM (204.50.22.2)

This information is available from your hosting company either in their informational package that they email to you, or on their website. If you can’t find the DNS it’s best to contact your web host and ask for it. Once you have the DNS information you can usually enter it into your account on the website of your registrar. If you have purchased your domain name from the hosting company, they will usually make the necessary changes for you when they set up your account.

When the DNS is registered or modified (when changing web hosts) it can take up to 24 hours for your site to be accessible from everywhere in the world. This is because domain names are registered in a distributed data base that is maintained on thousands of computers around the world. Each computer has a small part of the database in cache, and if they receive a request for an unknown domain that request has to be forwarded to another computer until the information is found.

After you have opened an account with a web host and set the DNS you can start uploading your web pages. The most common way to do this is to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software but there are also some other options.

FTP is an Internet Protocol (like HTTP) that allows data files to be transferred from one computer to another. Your web host will provide information about how to connect to your site using FTP. Usually you use FTP software such as WS_FTP or FileZilla to connect to the FTP server on your website. The address of the FTP server is usually ftp.mywebsite.com (where mywebsite.com is the domain name).

Your host will also tell you the location where files should be uploaded. Your account will probably have two main folders in the root directory – public_html and www. Your web pages should be uploaded to the public_html folder. The www folder is a mirror folder which allows people to find your site by using either www.mysite.com or mysite.com.

You may have to adjust a few settings in your FTP software to upload files correctly. For example, if you are using a firewall on your computer you should set the transfer method to passive. If you are using a proxy you will have to adjust the proxy settings.

Files can be sent or received in either binary or ASCII mode. If they are transferred using the incorrect mode they may end up with errors on completion of the transfer. Your FTP software may try to determine which mode to use by examining the contents of the files, or you may have to manually specify the transfer mode. Files that should be sent in ASCII mode include HTML (and variants like HTM, SHTML, DHTML, etc.) TXT, CGI, C, ASP, JS etc. Basically, any file that can be viewed in a text editor should be transferred in ASCII mode. Binary mode, on the other hand, is used to transfer everything else – graphics, compiled programs, and media files.

Using the FTP software, make a connection to your web server. Browse to the folder where you want to upload files (usually by clicking on the folder icons) and then find the local files you wish to upload. Whole directories or individual files may be uploaded.

You can name most of the pages of your website anything you like, but there is one essential file in each directory – index.html or a variant (index.htm, index.shtml etc). This means that your home page has to use this name. The home page can be viewed by typing http://mywebsite.com or http://mywebsite.com/index.htm. In the first case, if there is no file named index.htm the contents of your root directory will be shown. Without an index file in each directory, anybody who browses to that directory can see all the files there. This presents an enormous security risk as well as exposing private information to public view.

FTP is the most common way to upload files to your website but is by no means the only way. Some web authoring packages have built in transfer methods to automatically upload your entire site or individual pages. Microsoft FrontPage is an example of this type of transfer method. In order to take advantage of it you need to have FrontPage extensions installed on your website. You can request this feature from your web host. Other authoring packages have built-in FTP software so that you can build your site and upload with one familiar interface.

You can also build sites online. Some web hosts give you access to browser controlled software that allows you to lay out web pages. Once you are finished the page is automatically saved to the proper location on your server. This type of web builder is usually available through the control panel of your hosting account.

Google Web Hosting

Google is one of the leading engine sites that are being used by many people. It contains informational data that people use in researches and studies, and also help others know more about new stuff. It also provides products and services through hosting sites made by individuals and business sectors.

Google Web Hosting provides free hosting of your own site. They help you create a reliable webpage that is boasting with stupendous quality. By using Google as a host, you are guaranteed that your website is getting as much traffic as it deserves. Pieces of information are being updated each time there is a need to change your website. The host also creates a page that will reflect your interests and that will provide easy access for the customers to use.

Google hosts websites are for those who are starting a business and those who want to sell their products to a bigger market. In using this, the user should have a domain name that would be used in applying for making your own site. Then you can register to a host like Google for them to promote your website. Google provides easy access and your website is easily loaded. Network traffic is controlled, and communications between the website owner and the customer is available with the help of their tools.

They control the appearance of pop-ups, unnecessary banners ads, and spam mails. An anti-virus system is being used so as not to intrude with the performance of your webpage. They also provide systems that track the location of your customers, allowing you to find your biggest market.

Data Base

Databases can also be used for storing and accessing customer records. This allows you to tailor your pages according to your customer’s previous purchases. Each page could have a personalized greeting (Welcome back Peter) and when they make another purchase all their personal data including address and credit card number could be pulled from the database so they don’t have to fill in the same form again.

Another use of a database is mailinglists. Many websites send out information to their visitors to remind them about the site and encourage them to visit again. Email addresses can be stored in a database for the purpose of sending out announcements and newsletters. Also the newsletters can be archived in a database so that visitors can browse or search through previous mailings.

Each database can be divided into tables which are a complete set of data, so one database could be used for most of your website information by setting up a number of tables.The number of databases that your site needs depends on how many applications you are going to run.

It’s one thing to have a database, it’s another to access that data. There are several ways to retrieve information from a database so that it can be usefully applied to your website. One of the most popular combinations is PHP along with MySQL. PHP can be used to create dynamic web pages that pull data from a MySQL database. The programming language is quite straightforward and can be used to set up complex interactive forms. Other database applications include MySQL with ASP, MSSQL with ASP, and PostgreSQL with PHP.